Self-Publishing Regrets?

Q: You’ve said you think Do Not Resuscitate is your best piece of fiction. Do you ever regret self-publishing it instead of pursuing traditional publication?

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: Of course I would prefer to have my favorite piece of fiction traditionally published for wider distribution. I often ask myself why I didn’t even try to go the traditional route before I self-published Do Not Resuscitate. At the time, I needed a project, something I could control. And there are no guarantees in traditional publishing, as we are seeing with my current YA novel, What If I Did? Even though What If I Did? won a grant and secured an agent, six months later, nobody has agreed to publish it. Hardly a bite.

So I think Do Not Resuscitate served its purpose at the time. It was a great practice run for the real thing; I learned a lot about editing, formatting, marketing, and sales going the self-publishing route. And I think the fact that DNR won several awards gave me confidence to approach an agent with What If I Did?

Nothing is certain in the publishing industry, so at least I know that DNR is available now for anyone to enjoy. AND you can look forward to the release of the audiobook version this spring. I have to say, hearing the book read aloud by a talented narrator (Miles Meili) gives me a renewed appreciation for the story. (I’ve been reviewing recordings over this past week, and they sound great!) If you want to be notified by email when the audiobook is available on Amazon, just sign up for my free monthly digest. And subscribe to my Patreon page to read the rest of this article.